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Chapter 17 – A Discordant Note

"Serves you right, bitch!"

The blow stung, but it wasn't enough to keep Madelyn from seeing the woman get yanked away by a couple of red shirts. She fought cursing and yelling until she'd disappeared from the courtroom, leaving Madelyn in the center of the muttering crowd to be gawked at. She raised her hand to her face briefly to check for blood. The skin wasn't broken, but there could be a bruise later she'd have to cover-up with makeup. A hand slid around her other arm.

"Let's get you out of here," said Kirk from behind her.

She gladly went with him across the crowded gallery until they were outside the courtroom.

"Captain, I don't know how to thank you for what you did in there," she said quietly as they came to a halt on the quiet end of the building's lobby.

"I didn't do it for you," he replied. "I did it to get this case moving. We can't let Khan think he can get comfortable. Are you ok?"

Madelyn waved his hand away. "I'm fine."

"Look, I'm sorry that I made you—"

"Kirk, it's okay!" She managed to keep her voice at a reasonable level. "It's okay. I don't think I had a choice, to be honest. It was bound to come out."

"I didn't consider the fallout," he replied.

"It was one person, ok? One woman who had every right to be angry."

"Yeah, but she didn't have the right to take it out on you."

Who's to say I didn't deserve it? she thought to herself. Her hand unconsciously slipped across her sweater to her belly. She knew better than to be thinking that way.

"Madelyn, I don't know if I'm crossing a line by asking this, but are you pregnant?"

She raised her gaze back to Kirk, surprised and disconcerted, and unsure of how to answer.

"I know, I'm sorry," he said, lowering his voice. "It's just that I'm pretty sure I overheard Bones in the hospital a few days ago muttering to himself about you and a baby."

Madelyn clenched her teeth and removed her hand from her stomach, shoving it into her pants pocket. Just then, a door in the back of the room slid open and Khan was marched into the lobby surrounded by security. Madelyn pulled her trench coat around herself and crossed her arms as they passed, matching Khan's cool gaze when he looked at her briefly. She wasn't able to relax again until he'd been taken out the building's doors amidst a media storm and had boarded the transport shuttle that would return him to his high-security cell at some undisclosed location in the city.

Bones knew. Now Kirk knew.

"Whatever you do, don't ever bring this up again, do you understand?"

"Because you don't want Khan to know."

She nodded. "I don't think anyone should know. I don't want to know the implications of some high-up government official finding out I'm carrying the child of a genetically-enhanced terrorist."

Kirk nodded. "If you don't mine me asking, why are you keeping it?"

"Because I've believed all my life that I couldn't have children. This is my only chance."

"You don't think it'll grow up to be like its father?"

"He or she will never know who Khan was. I'll make sure of that."

Kirk smiled faintly. "From what Carol's told me about you, I think you'll make a great mother."

Madelyn returned his look. She wasn't worried that she'd be a bad mother. She was more worried about keeping her child from Khan's influence. This trial would decide his fate and that was the only thing worth worrying about now.

"At that point, we were all in shock or otherwise unable to stop him. I was on the floor with a broken leg. Captain Kirk was unconscious alongside Mr. Scott. And I believe that any attempt on Ms. McGivers' part to stop Khan from killing my father would have been dangerous to her health."

"Mr. Singh made no attempt to incapacitate Ms. McGivers as well?"

Carol shook her head faintly. "No."

The prosecuting lawyer crossed the room with his hands behind his back. "And after Mr. Singh killed Admiral Marcus, what happened?"

"He hailed the Enterprise and struck a deal with Mr. Spock. If Spock gave Khan back his crew, then Khan would beam us back in return."

"Did Mr. Singh follow through with this deal?"

"Since the Enterprise's beaming technology had been damaged in the previous attacks, Spock allowed Khan to beam out his own crew," Carol explained. "In return, Captain Kirk, Mr. Scott, and myself were beamed back to the Enterprise."

"You left out Ms. McGivers."

"I believe she remained onboard the Vengeance."

"Why didn't Mr. Singh beam her back with the rest?"

Madelyn watched Carol as she hesitated to respond. She didn't like where these questions were going.

"I don't know. He wasn't particularly interested in explaining himself that day."

A few people muttered in the gallery. The prosecution lawyer chuckled to herself.

"After you were returned to the Enterprise, I'm led to believe by Mr. Spock's testimony that Mr. Singh proceeded to attack your ship without hesitation."

"He did," Carol replied.

"But this attack only lasted a short period of time before an enormous explosion from within the hull of the Vengeance forced it from orbit. According to Mr. Spock, this explosion was caused by the torpedoes which Mr. Singh had just willingly transported onboard his hijacked ship. Can you vouch for this statement?"

"I believe that's the case, however during that time I wasn't on the Enterprise's bridge. I was in the medbay and I don't remember everything."

"Is it also true that Mr. Singh's crew were contained within these torpedoes when they exploded?"

"As far as I'm aware, yes, they were."

Madelyn swallowed, realizing that only a few people knew the truth about Khan's crew and Carol wasn't one of them. There was a reason that information needed to be kept a secret.

The prosecution turned to the judges. "No further questions, Your Honors."

"Witness is dismissed."

For three hours, the tribunal had listened to witness testimonies from multiple parties, painting a clear picture of the events that had led Khan from bombing the Archive in London to crashing the Vengeance into San Francisco. So far it was looking to Madelyn like he would be charged guilty on all counts and hopefully thrown into a cold, dark prison on some forsaken colony on the outer edges of the sector.

One thing was bothering her, however. Not one word had been mentioned of Khan's previous life in the 21st century, when he had ruled a third of the Earth's population and indirectly contributed to genocide, actions that should have put him on a level playing field with the likes of Adolf Hitler. Instead, the court seemed more concerned with the crimes he'd committed in this century, which paled in comparison.

Khan had been a dictator and a tyrant, and Madelyn knew that if she'd had any say in this matter, he never would've received a trial in the first place. But the further into the case the court was drawn, she began to wonder if 21st century Khan was even relevant. Given the current illegality of all genetic manipulation, his very existence was illegal, and if she really considered it, so was hers. No one other than Dr. McCoy knew what she was—and potentially that creep, Dr. Madsen, if he was still alive—and it needed to stay that way.

If Khan was charged for the least of what he'd done over the last few weeks, she would have to be satisfied with that. She'd already paid enough of a price for it with the bruise on her face. It was small, but covered enough of her cheekbone to be noticeable and had required a layer of makeup she normally never wore. That woman had packed a hell of a punch to even mark her as much as she did. This case had started more than a few fires, and she knew they wouldn't be put out any time soon.

By the fourth day of testimonies, Madelyn was convinced they would announce a verdict. Instead, she was called to the stand once again. She only half-heard it at first, being jaded by the length of time this case was taking to try a man who was clearly guilty in her eyes.

"The court would like to call the defense witness, Madelyn McGivers, to the stand for final questioning."

She hated hearing them call her the defense's "witness," as though she intentionally wanted to defend Khan when that was the last thing she meant to do, despite what had happened yesterday. She knew her testimony yesterday had done nothing but prove Khan had never intended to hurt her, no matter that he'd manipulated her. It had proved that he was less of a monster than she wanted everyone to believe. Today she would change that.

Gritting her teeth because she hadn't been expecting to testify again, she stood from her seat at the front of the gallery and calmly walked towards the stand, then carefully seated herself without giving away her growing belly hidden inside her coat. If the trial had been delayed at all, she would have been screwed, but right now she was still small enough to hide it effectively from Khan, who was watching her keenly from his box on the opposite side of the room.

"Since this court has granted you an acquittal Ms. McGivers, you are under no obligation to speak unless you want to," the judge nearest to her explained. "However, as a witness on the stand, you are still obliged to answer the prosecution's questions. Is that clear?"

"Yes," Madelyn nodded. The reassurance that she was no longer the one on trial did little to assuage her unease. She fought to avoid glancing over at Khan, whose gaze never wavered from her seat. Today could be the last day she'd ever have to lay eyes on him again. She just needed to get through this last questioning.

"Hello, Madelyn."

Her frustration with Khan turned to surprise and anger when she saw Owen cross the room to face her in the stand. A smooth smirk danced across his lips and his arms were crossed smugly over his chest, pulling at his gray uniform so it strained around his shoulders. Madelyn didn't respond, returning his look with an unamused glare.

"I'm here on behalf of the late Admiral Marcus," Owen said, "who, as I'm sure you're well aware, was murdered by Mr. Singh three weeks ago. According to previous witness accounts, Mr. Singh didn't return you to the Enterprise with Captain Kirk and the others, which leads me to assume that you somehow survived the Vengeance crash. My question is what happened to you between the time Kirk was beamed back to his ship and the moment the torpedoes were detonated?" Owen smiled again. "Take all the time you need."

Madelyn found herself frowning at him as she tried to figure out why he would ask this. He'd put her on the spot, but she had no choice other than to respond with the truth. Taking a deep and careful breath, she shifted in her seat before beginning.

"I was shocked when Khan didn't beam me back with the rest. Actually, I was terrified. I knew there was no other way for me to get off that ship. Before he killed Admiral Marcus, Khan had sealed the door of the bridge to keep me from escaping, so while he was distracted, I pulled a phaser from one of the unconscious bridge officers. I thought I could take Khan out, but I was too scared to, and he had all the cards playing in his favor. With the amount of confidence he'd just regained by getting his people back, I knew he could easily overpower me and I couldn't r—"

Madelyn stopped herself from saying that she couldn't risk getting hurt because of the baby. She swiftly collected herself and continued. "I'd seen what he could do. Marcus' skull had been smashed in between his bare hands. There was blood and gray matter on the floor under Marcus' body—"

"Madelyn, let me interrupt you for a moment," said Owen. "Are you telling me you had a phaser on you that entire time and you were too scared to use it?"

"He's an Augment," she found herself exclaiming. "He's way too strong for his own good and everything else about him is just as enhanced. He has an ego the size of England, and an intellect to match. There was no way I was going to try and shoot him." She took a breath as Owen seemed to be satiated by her response. "But attacking the Enterprise was the final straw. I wasn't thinking clearly, but I pointed it at him and I told him to stop. I told him to put me back on the Enterprise, that I would rather go down with that ship than be trapped on the Vengeance with him."

Owen seemed fascinated by her testimony. "Did you mean that, Madelyn?"

She glanced at him but tore her gaze away to glare at Khan. "Every word," she replied. She held Khan's gaze for another few moments, hoping to see something register there reminiscent of regret. Instead she saw only cool, keen eyes and a silent, neutral mouth.

"What happened next?"

Madelyn looked away from Khan, ignoring the tinge of disappointment in the back of her mind that he hadn't responded to her. "The torpedoes exploded, and we crashed. The Enterprise beamed me up soon after. I had a bad wound in my leg and had lost a lot of blood."

Owen nodded slowly. "So Mr. Singh saved your life during the crash."

"What?" Madelyn blinked at the unexpected assumption.

"Well, how else could you have survived that?"

She gritted her teeth, trying to come up with an alternative explanation when she knew Owen was right.

"I got lucky," she muttered.

"What was that, Madelyn?" Owen tilted his head as though he was trying to listen closer. "You said you got lucky?" He chuckled and turned to the court, striding across the well towards where Khan stood. "She says she was lucky to have survived the crash, when we both know the truth."

"Objection, Your Honors," said Mr. Santos, rising from his seat at the defense table. "Mr. Gallagher is taking a personal stance with this line of questioning."

"Overruled," was the order from behind Madelyn. She swallowed as Owen stood eye to eye with Khan for a silent moment, the latter never flinching. Then Owen turned on his heel to walk back across the well and face her.

"Yesterday when you gave your first testimony, Madelyn, you did a hell of a job making yourself the victim. But I know the real truth." Owen pulled a small holographic projector from his suit pocket and switched it on. A large greenish-blue screen appeared in the air in front of him, and then an image materialized. Madelyn felt her heart drop into her stomach as Owen turned to face the court. "The real truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that Madelyn McGivers had sex with Mr. Singh multiple times over the course of two months, and never bothered to ask why she knew so little about him."

Madelyn stared at the holographic images as Owen flipped through them, one after another, all of them depicting her and Khan in various states of undress. From the angles, the photos appeared to have been taken from a distance outside the studio flat in London, zoomed in and sharpened to enhance agonized expressions, curled toes, and sweaty skin.

The gallery was in an uproar. Madelyn wanted to sink into her seat, wipe the images from her visual cortex and forget that Owen had ever shown them to anyone. Tears pricked her eyes as she watched helplessly, until the judges ordered Owen to shut off the device.

"Mr. Gallagher, please return to your seat," said one of the judges. "You've failed to convince this court of anything other than your apparent goal of ruining Ms. McGivers' reputation. Security, remove that device from his person. It's to be reclaimed as evidence in a case that is clearly nearing completion. Ms. McGivers, do you have anything else you would like to add to your testimony?"

Madelyn managed to turn and look up at the judge but couldn't quite make the words come out. She shook her head and the judge nodded. "Witness is dismissed. The court now recognizes Admiral Georgia Rescher as a prosecution witness. Please come to the stand."

Madelyn hastily returned to her seat, fighting to maintain her composure and keep her gaze away from anyone. Those images would reach the media within minutes. Coupled with her name and her face and her current involvement in this case from the beginning, her attempt at maintaining the image of an unwilling victim was going to be destroyed.

"How could they let him do that?"

Madelyn paced furiously back and forth across Dr. McCoy's office while the doctor half watched her with a raised eyebrow and half attended to his PADD.

"Bones, I can't go outside anymore without someone recognizing me! I've been royally screwed over and there's nothing I can do about it because Owen has a squeaky clean record, that son of a bitch. God, I can't believe this is happening to me."

"I think your best choice now would be to calm down and let me finish my tests."

"You don't understand! Those pictures are practically porn and they're everywhere! How am I supposed to go back home and look people in the eye without my face reminding them that I slept with an infamous terrorist for two months and I didn't even know he was an infamous terrorist?! Oh god, what's Naomi going to say? What are my students gonna say? What if I lose my job?"

"I think you're blowing this a little out of proportion. Yeah, Owen is a certified bastard, that's pretty obvious. Maybe you should cut ties."

Madelyn paused and sent him a look. "Oh, I've tried. Look at the good it did me."

"Look, I don't think ranting and raving is gonna do you much good. Have you been eating enough? Your weight isn't quite where it needs to be at this stage in development."

"I eat plenty. I had an unnaturally large breakfast this morning. Gained me some suspicious comments from Carol, by the way. And this shirt already feels too tight. Why is this happening so fast?"

McCoy shrugged. "At this point, all I can say is its due to your Augment genetics. You know at some point you won't be able to hide it anymore."

"Well, let's hope that point doesn't come until this trial is over and done with. Maybe I should change my name and get plastic surgery."

"Don't go that far. That's what Admiral Marcus did to Khan."

"You're right. I can't do that. I can't become like him anymore than I already am." She waved McCoy's instruments away when he held them next to her head. "Bones, I'm fine. I need to go now, or I'll be late."

He grumbled to himself something about Kirk and waved her off. Madelyn headed for the door, then paused and turned.

"Hey, thank you, ok?"

McCoy looked up and acted like he didn't know what she was talking about. She rolled her eyes.

"Thank you for putting up with all of this." She put her hands on her belly. "And for keeping it a secret. I owe you."

"I'm a doctor. You don't owe me anything. Now get to that trial."

She threw him a weak grin before heading out the door.

It was the morning of the trial's fifth day of proceedings. As she made her way out of the hospital, she slipped on a large pair of sunglasses to shield most of her face from the wave of oncoming journalists and photographers. It was an agonizing few minutes to walk between the hospital and the courthouse, both on Starfleet's campus. Cameras flashed in her face and she wordlessly ignored every question posed her, some of them bordering on ridiculous and reeking of tabloid trash, wanting to know every salacious detail of her sex life, something she felt had already been rudely uncovered by someone she'd once considered her friend.

She tried not to let herself gaze too long at the various screens and magazines and tablets on display in kiosks lining the street. Khan's trial was making headlines everywhere, and his face wasn't the only one in the news. Closer to the courthouse, police barricades held back a line of protesters. Madelyn knew they weren't there just for her, but she picked up her pace nonetheless, not ignorant of the insults thrown at her.

She took a breath when she entered the courtroom, welcoming the thick silence peppered with quiet conversation from the gallery. She took her usual seat beside defense attorney César Santos and didn't even glance over when Khan was led in. She had no reason to even acknowledge his presence anymore.

When the judges entered minutes later, their first order of business was to make a series of announcements. The first was that several top Starfleet officials had been ordered to resign their posts due to their involvement with Admiral Marcus' work in Section 31. One of them, an Admiral, was charged with multiple offenses, most of them having to do with overlooking the work Marcus had been doing without Federation oversight, including construction of the USS Vengeance as well as other highly advanced ships and weapons that had never reached completion. Madelyn was also officially cleared of the charges Owen had wrongly laid against her. As soon as the trial was over, she was free to return home. All that remained now was for Khan's verdict to be read.

The seven judges residing over the case had deliberated all night and the days previous as each testimony was given and evidence brought forward in an attempt to prove that Khan's actions had been willful. Every time Mr. Santos had reminded the court of Khan's position under Admiral Marcus, he'd received boos and hisses from the gallery. Madelyn was unsure how to feel about the situation. She had negative feelings towards the Admiral, but he was dead now, and she could think of nothing else that might excuse Khan's actions. Hundreds had died in his initial attack in London, and thousands more had perished in the aftermath of the Vengeance crash. There was no other alternative than a guilty verdict.

The room was called to order. One of the judges broke through the thick silence with a collected voice and went straight to the punch line. "This tribunal of seven has found the defendant guilty of all the charges laid against him."

Madelyn let out a slow, steady breath and leaned back in her seat. The charges were read out. Numerous cases of voluntary manslaughter, multiple counts of first-degree murder, and two counts of terrorism against the Federation.

"Now for the sentence," she muttered to herself. She could already feel the relief washing over her.

"In ordinary Federation cases, my next obligation would be to inform the defendant of the cost of his crimes," the judge continued. "However, this has not been an ordinary case. Mr. Singh's crimes will certainly not come without a cost, but the decision my colleagues and I have made regarding his future will also come with a cost, one that my superiors within the Federation are willing to pay the price for."

The judge paused as the rooms silence thickened.

"Mr. Singh will remain in San Francisco to serve out the duration of his life working within Starfleet, advancing the cause of scientific and medical research in whatever ways are seen fit by Starfleet authorities."

Madelyn couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"He will be watched and guarded at all times. There will be strict procedures regarding this, and all failures to follow these new procedures will be punishable under Federation law."

The gallery was exploding with furor.

"Mr. Singh will work alongside anyone within Starfleet needing his expertise. He will also undergo rehabilitation therapy and regular psychological evaluations under an assigned, licensed Starfleet psychologist to ensure he willingly submits to his sentence."

The gallery was quickly reaching a breaking point of cacophony that the other judges' attempts were doing little to silence. Madelyn's nails were digging into the varnish of her seat.

"We are all aware of the similarities between this sentence and Mr. Singh's prior situation under Admiral Marcus. The difference this time will include constant Federation oversight into every facet of Starfleet. Mr. Singh is a relic of a time when humankind saw no bounds of exploration within the scientific world. Keeping to the ideals we strive for in this modern time, we feel confident that Mr. Singh can continue to provide us with valuable insight into science and medicine. Again, he will be closely monitored and guarded at all times as he serves out the remainder of his life working for the proper authorities."

Madelyn could hardly see straight. Her teeth were grinding together as she turned the judge's words over and over in her mind.

"This court is adjourned and case closed."

Khan wasn't even going to prison. He was going back to work.

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